


Studies in the City That Never Sleeps

by dearzoemurphy



Category: Community (TV)
Genre: F/M, Post-Canon, Reunion, and jeff's still teaching at greendale, britta got her degree and is a social worker, completely indulging in my headcanons baybee!, post-season 6, she also moved to new york a year before this takes place
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-28
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:53:48
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,692
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25565422
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dearzoemurphy/pseuds/dearzoemurphy
Summary: “So…what brought you to New York?” Britta asked in between slurping up her bowl of pho.“I really wanted to study the different species of rats that live in the subways,” Jeff said sarcastically. Britta narrowed her eyes at him, eliciting a deep chuckle.“I came here to see you, dummy."Jeff visits Britta in New York with more than a few things on his mind.
Relationships: Britta Perry/Jeff Winger
Comments: 11
Kudos: 43





	Studies in the City That Never Sleeps

**Author's Note:**

> alternate title: 1674 words of Bri being soft and indulging in her post-s6 headcanons

“Hey.”

Britta turned around and was greeted with the sight of the last person she had ever expected to see in the city.

“Jeff?!” she exclaimed, recovering from her shock enough to rush forward and throw her arms around him. He laughed, maybe out of amusement or maybe out of disbelief that his friend was finally right in front of him, and gladly returned the embrace.

“What are you doing here? Why didn’t you tell me you were coming?!” Britta asked, pulling away enough to look him in the eye.

“I wanted to surprise you. I had Annie ask when you were most available,” Jeff explained with a slightly mischievous grin.

“Well, shit, I could have taken today off to meet you at the airport if I’d known!” Britta said.

He dismissed her concerns with a wave of his hand. “It’s okay, I took an Uber down here,” he said, gesturing to her workplace.

“Uh huh. Wait, how long have you been waiting out here?” Britta asked, still hung up on the logistics so that she didn’t have to think about the fact that _he was right there_ , right in front of her. After a year of texting and calling, she could finally touch him. She was still embracing him, somewhat. As long as he was here, she didn’t think that she would fully let him go.

“Funny story, I got here right on time. Annie also told me when you usually take your lunch break, so I dropped my stuff off at my airbnb first,” Jeff said, “You want to keep catching up over food? My treat.”

Britta smiled. “Sure. There’s a great Vietnamese place right down the street if that’s alright with you.”

“Sounds great. Lead the way,” he agreed, gesturing down the sidewalk with one arm and offering his other to the blonde.

\---

“So…what brought you to New York?” Britta asked in between slurping up her bowl of pho.

They’d gotten a table outside on the sidewalk, both on account of the light, breezy weather and potential for people-watching.

“I really wanted to study the different species of rats that live in the subways,” Jeff said sarcastically. Britta narrowed her eyes at him, eliciting a deep chuckle.

“I came here to see you, dummy."

The blonde smiled in spite of herself, looking down at her noodles so that she didn’t have to look directly at the man sitting across from her. “Makes sense. I’m a pretty cool person.”

“I wouldn’t have told you that if I knew it was gonna go straight to your head,” Jeff said, emphatically taking a sip of broth.

Britta stuck her tongue out at the brunet, causing him to laugh again.

“Okay then, trust me, I didn’t just come for you! I also came to look at some apartments.”

“Wait…what?!” Britta exclaimed. She froze in place with her chopsticks hovering above her bowl, jaw hanging open. _“He can’t possibly be saying that he’s thinking of moving here…there’s no way.”_

Jeff smiled broadly, setting down his utensils. “Yeah. For some stupid reason, I’m thinking of moving here. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life at Greendale, or even in Colorado. I figured that if you love this place so much, maybe I should give it a try,” he said, quickly realizing that he had been more genuine than he had intended to be, “I’m hoping it’ll be so bad that I end up appreciating Greendale,” he added sarcastically.

Britta threw her napkin across the table at him, eliciting another chuckle. “You can’t be serious! There’s no way that Jeffery Tobias Winger actually wants to move here.”

“Yes way, Britta Elizabeth Perry. Craig has connections with a college in the city, he can get me a job there,” Jeff said.

“But…really, why here?” the blonde asked, still having difficulty processing the idea of Jeff moving to New York.

His face morphed from its jovial expression to a more solemn one. “I miss my best friend,” he said simply.

Britta’s chopsticks clattered against the table. A beat of silence passed. “You…you miss me? You’re moving here because you miss me?”

Jeff’s instinct was to reply sarcastically, but instead, he smiled and reached across the table to take her hand. “Yeah. Greendale’s not the same without you. It’s not the same without the whole group around. It went from kind of shitty to really shitty after you left, though,” he said, his thumb idly stroking Britta’s palm, “I want to move, and I don’t want to move to a place where I don’t know anyone. I figured, why not move somewhere I’ve always wanted to go where there’s someone that I want to spend a lot of time with, you know?”

Britta felt her pulse begin to quicken. “Wow, that’s…how come you didn’t tell me any of that until now?” she asked.

“Do you want to hear something stupid?”

The blonde raised an eyebrow quizzically. “Yes?”

“I was scared. I thought you might tell me not to move here,” Jeff said sheepishly, unable to keep his gaze up from the table.

Britta couldn’t help the dry laugh that escaped from her mouth. “Really?! I mean, I probably would have told you that you would hate it here, but you were scared of that?”

“Yeah. I thought that if I just showed up, you’d be so happy to see me that you would be more…supportive,” he explained.

“Jeff, I would have supported you no matter what! I’d love living close to you again! I’ve missed you, too. It’s hard to make friends in the city that aren’t other social workers or the baristas at my favorite coffee place,” Britta said, flipping her hand over so that she could squeeze Jeff’s tightly, “It’s a big change in lifestyle, though. You should take this week to really consider if you could be happy here,” she added.

Jeff met her gaze once more and smiled gently. “I will. I, uh…there’s probably something else I should mention.”

“Hm?”

“I’ve done a lot of thinking since you left, about a lot of things. About what I want my future to look like. And of course I wanted to get out of Greendale, but do you know what kept showing up in every single version I imagined?”

“What kept showing up?” Britta asked.

“I was spending my life with you. Sometimes, we had a house on the coast with a vegetable garden that we started together. Sometimes, we had an apartment in the city where we hosted game nights for our new group of friends. Sometimes, we were platonic partners, and sometimes, we were…a little more than that,” Jeff said. His face screwed up as if he were bracing for some kind of impact.

Britta wasn’t sure what to say. Hell, she wasn’t quite sure what to think.

“I guess we have almost gotten married three separate times, huh,” was the first complete sentence she was able to form.

“Yeah, we have,” Jeff said with a laugh.

“I mean, I guess I’ve thought about it as well. Kind of in passing. Like, when we started really talking again, I deleted Tinder. And I never really thought about why? I just didn’t feel the need to go on dates or anything, and I guess it’s because I had you,” Britta said. She was essentially thinking out loud, coming to several realizations all at once.

“I felt the same way. I went on a few dates after you left, but never more than one with the same person. I couldn’t picture spending the rest of my life with any of them, and I’m at the age where that’s something I have to think about, I guess,” Jeff added onto her stream of consciousness.

Britta looked up to meet her friend’s gaze, seeing him in a light that she hadn’t seen him in for a long time. “You know, I never thought of you as a romantic,” she said with a smirk.

Jeff’s eyebrow quirked upwards. “What part makes me a romantic?”

“You flew across the country to surprise me in the hopes that it would make me more open to the idea of you moving here in order to be closer to me. And after a lifetime of not leaving Colorado, no less! That’s pretty damn romantic,” Britta elaborated.

He looked down at the table bashfully, still absentmindedly rubbing the back of her hand. “I promise that wasn’t my only intention. That was just…a happy coincidence, I suppose,” he said.

Britta bit her lip to keep herself from breaking out into an uncontrollable grin. She was about to respond when her phone buzzed. She gave Jeff an apologetic look before glancing down to check it.

“Oh, shit, they need me back at the office. I’m so sorry,” she said, springing up from the table.

“Oh, no problem. I’ll walk you back, I can just get a jump on sightseeing while you’re working,” Jeff said, letting go of Britta’s hand and gathering his jacket.

The blonde smiled gratefully, letting Jeff take her by the arm for the short walk back to her office building. She felt an unusual amount of butterflies in her stomach as she found herself leaning into his warmth. He’d barely been back for an hour, but she already wanted to fall right back into him. Was that healthy? Could they actually make anything work? Would it be better to stay friends and not risk falling apart? Should they-

Her train of thought was interrupted when they reached her building, Jeff looking down at her expectantly.

“So…”

“I think you should kiss me,” Britta said impulsively.

Jeff’s mouth drew up in surprise, quickly relaxing into a slightly dazed smile. “Okay,” he said.

As he stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her waist, all of Britta’s questions fell away, one by one. Her arms snaked up over his shoulders to pull him even closer as they met in the middle, exploring territory that had been untouched for years. Whatever came after this, one thing was for certain.

This was one life-changing kiss.

**Author's Note:**

> as always, please leave a comment with any thoughts/opinions/etc. down below!! thanks for reading, hope you all are doing well. <3


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